Changing the Future
by cynicalone94
Summary: What if Voldemort read the Harry Potter books and discovered that the son of James Potter was going to be his down fall? He sends his potential Death Eaters who are still at Hogwarts to kill James Potter and prevent the birth of the Boy Who Lived, Duh!


**Disclaimer: I wish I was as cool as J.K. Rowling and could actually think while I ride the train but its just too noisy for my brain to function. That means that I don't own Harry Potter.**

**Harry Potter**

**Changing the Future**

**What if Voldemort read the Harry Potter books and discovered that the son of James Potter was going to be his down fall? He sends his potential Death Eaters who are still at Hogwarts to kill James Potter and prevent the birth of the **

**Boy Who Lived**

** "**You called for me my Lord?" a figure wearing a dark mask that obscured his face said in a subservient way that seemed odd for his cold voice.

"Yes, I have a task for you and some of your fellow Hogwarts students who are _sympathetic to our cause._" A man, his face obscured by the shadows, said in a high snake like voice.

"Whatever you ask of us my Lord." the other man said.

"I need you to kill the horrendous blood traitor, James Potter. I don't care how you do it as long as he dies, slowly and painfully." the man in the shadows said.

"I have no opposition to killing Potter, but why do you suddenly want him dead so urgently?" the other man asked,

before hurriedly adding, "If you don't mind me asking my Lord."

"I do mind." the man sneered, "You may involve as many of your friends as you feel necessary to assure completion of this task, but do not kill anyone other than Potter, Dumbledore's attention need not be aroused any more than is necessary. You have one month to complete this task. Now go, you must return before your absence is noted."

With a nod, the masked man disappeared into the darkness with a loud pop.

James Potter sat on his four poster bed staring at the ceiling feeling rather depressed. Lily Evans had just turned him down for the umpteenth time and it was really starting to bother the fourteen year old.

"Why does she hate me?" he asked nobody in particular.

Unfortunately, his best friend, Sirius Black, chose that exact moment to walk in the dormitory,

"Mate, you really shouldn't let her get to you like that!" he said flopping down on his own bed.

"I don't understand it, all of the other girls adore me, why is it that the one I actually genuinely like can't stand to be in the same room as me." James said with a sad sigh before getting up, "I'm going down by the lake."

Sirius sighed as his best friend left the room with the same hopelessly dejected look on his face that he always got whenever Lily Evans rejected him.

Meanwhile in the Slytherin common room, Lucius Malfoy was reflecting on the task that Lord Voldemort had assigned him. He wasn't sure he could do it. Sure he wanted to obey the Dark Lord and he'd always hated that nosy brat of a blood traitor Potter but he wasn't sure he was quite capable of murder.

Who would he enlist to help him? Narcissa, as beautiful as she was, probably wouldn't be much help, she hated violence. Her sister, Bellatrix, however, would probably jump at the chance to do something for the Dark Lord and she probably wouldn't mind killing Potter. Her boyfriend Rodolphus and his brother Rabastian would no doubt be in for it as well. Crabbe and Goyle would be willing to participate but they might screw it up being as dimwitted as they were, perhaps he would put them in charge of making sure the other Marauders didn't interfere. Severus Snape was a bit young but he would most likely help too seeing as he loathed Potter with a passion. Regulus Black would be good for anything that would upset his blood traitor of a brother. Then there were Mulciber, Avery, Rosier, and Nott all of whom would be plenty willing to help accomplish a mission this important to the Dark Lord. Bellatrix, Rodolphus, Rabastian, Crabbe, Goyle, Snape, Mulciber, Avery, Rosier, Black, Flint and Nott. If he counted himself, that was thirteen people which was surely more than enough to ambush and kill one fourteen year old wizard.

The only problem was that the Dark Lord wished the other Marauders to be left alone which meant they would have to find some way to lure Potter away from his friends before they ambushed him. This was slightly problematic seeing as the four were constantly together. Perhaps the others would have some ideas. He quickly sent them a message to meet him in the Room of Requirement before hurrying out of the common room.

Ten minutes later they were all gathered in the Room of Requirement which had become their meeting place.

"The Dark Lord has given us a mission," Lucius began standing before them, "He wishes us to kill James Potter."

"A simple enough task." Bellatrix said from where she was sitting closest to him, "We could do it at any time, you could have easily handled it by yourself, why have you called us?"

"The Dark Lord does not wish us to attract Dumbledore's attention to ourselves, he also wants Potter to have a slow painful death. That will require a great deal of planning. His final requirement is that we do not harm any of the other Marauders, he wants to keep this as low key as possible." Lucius calmly explained.

"So we're going to have to find some way to lure him away from his friends." Bellatrix said calmly clearly already considering some ideas.

"Without them feeling the need to come looking for him until it's too late." Rodolphus added, his brow furrowed in concentration.

"We could use his obsession with Lily Evans," Snape suggested, "his friends have clearly decided he's hopeless on that front and they probably wouldn't be bothered by him disappearing for a few hours over her."

"An excellent idea, we could send him an note from "her" asking him to meet "her" somewhere secluded. Then we could ambush him, torture him, and kill him." Bellatrix said looking just a little bit too cheerful.

"He'd never even consider that he was being duped." Rodolphus said, a smile on his face.

"What if the other Marauders decide to follow him to spy on him?" Regulus asked knowing that this was something his brother was likely to do.

"If they attempt to stop us, we will stun them and modify their memories, otherwise, I see no reason to worry about them." Bellatrix said calmly.

"Where would we set up the ambush though?" Snape said, the smile on his face having grown wider at the thought of torturing and then killing James Potter.

"It has to be far away from the Gryffindor Tower, in case the Marauders discover what's going on." Rosier said.

"It can't be too close to McGonagall's office either." added Mulciber.

"Or Dumbledore's." Avery chipped in.

"We'll also need to keep Evans out of the way so that she doesn't tip them off." Nott said.

"What about that spare room in the dungeons?" Flint suggested.

"That would work," Lucius said, "but someone would need to distract Slughorn."

"I could do that." Snape volunteered, "I'd just go ask him some ridiculous Potions question and get him talking for a few hours."

"Good, that's settled then," Lucius said, "but what will we do about the mudblood, we can't have her running into the Marauders and them finding out that she didn't send the note to Potter."

"Snape could drag her down to talk to Slughorn with him, it would make it easier to distract him." Avery suggested.

"Indeed he could, but would her being so close to us while we're ambushing him be such a good plan?" Nott asked.

"The spare room is a good distance away from Slughorn's classroom and if you guys are dimwitted enough to let Potter make enough commotion to attract her attention, I'm sure the Dark Lord won't mind me stunning her and modifying her memory to make her believe that she passed out." Snape said bitterly.

"Alright," Lucius conceded, "Is there anything else we need to figure out?"

"When are we doing this and what will we do if somebody stumbles upon us?" Rodolphus asked.

"We will stun them and modify their memory." Bellatrix said coldly, "as for when, did he give us a deadline?"

"We have one month to complete this task." Lucius said.

"Then we will do it on the fifteenth in two weeks time. That should give us plenty of time to set up the spare room and write a suitable note to send to Potter." Bellatrix said before looking to everyone in the room. They all nodded and she continued, "How will this note be sent?"

"We could probably send it via a school owl at breakfast that morning seeing as the mudblood doesn't own one." Rosier said.

"Yes, that's probably good enough except we should probably send it during his study period so that there is less chance that the mudblood will see him receiving it and ruin the plan." Lucius said looking around at the people gathered and seeing no objections he continued, "Alright, Bellatrix, you and I will work on setting up the spare room in the dungeons for this. Avery and Mulciber, steal some of the mudblood's notes so that we can copy her handwriting and everyone should listen to how she talks, particularly to Potter, we want this note to seem genuine. Any questions?"

They all shook their heads.

"Alright, Bellatrix, I'd appreciate it if you'd stay after so that we can start working on our part in this plan. The rest of you can go." he said calmly.

Bellatrix nodded and the rest of the group shuffled out of the Room of Requirement.

**two weeks later**

James Potter was sitting in the corner of the common room shortly after class doing homework. Sirius had scoffed at him when he'd said this and had walked off to go hang out by the lake, Peter had followed him and Remus was in Ancient Runes.

Suddenly, he heard a loud tapping on the window by him and looked up to see one of the school owls pecking at the window. Getting up, he let it in and was surprised when it stared at him with a letter held in it's mouth. He took it and the owl quickly turned around and flew back out the window.

He unfolded the letter and read it,

Potter,

Don't think this means that I'll go out with you but I'm having trouble with the spell Professor McGonagall taught us to turn guinea fowl into guinea pigs and I'd be eternally grateful if you would be willing to give me some help with it. I understand if you don't but I'd really appreciate it if you would meet me in the spare classroom down in the dungeons after dinner.

Lily

He felt warmth shooting through his entire body, Lily Evans wanted to meet him after dinner? No longer able to focus on the homework, he got up to go outside and tell Sirius.

A few hours later, the Marauders walked back into the common room having finished dinner. Sirius had just made some incredibly stupid joke and both he and Peter were laughing their heads off about it. Remus was shaking his head and James didn't seem to be paying any attention at all.

"Blimey James, will you just go tutor Lily already, that way maybe you'll acknowledge us again by some time tomorrow." Sirius said, groaning at the look on his best friend's face.

"Alright, Alright!" James said sheepishly before turning and walking back out of the common room, "see you guys later then, only I don't know when I'll come back or even if I'll come back."

Too bad he wouldn't realize the irony in that statement until it was too late.

James walked through the dungeons towards the spare classroom that was located down there. Suddenly he was struck with curiosity as to why Lily wanted to meet him down here but he shook it off and continued walking. Arriving at his destination, he pushed the door open and walked in. To his shock, he found himself facing twelve very menacing Slytherins with their wands pointed directly at him.

"James Potter." Lucius Malfoy said in what James supposed was a menacing voice, "I'd say you're in a bit of a fix wouldn't you?"

James immediately reached for his wand but found himself having been disarmed before he could fully raise it.

"So this is the only way you guys are willing to attack me, is it, twelve on one? No wonder you idiots aren't in Gryffindor." he said cheekily, knowing he was in trouble but hoping that maybe if he could stall them long enough help would arrive.

"Well doesn't someone think highly of himself? He's probably already thinking about how much fun he's going to have telling my dear brother about this. Too bad you won't be telling him anything ever again." Regulus Black said coldly.

James caught the meaning behind the statement and felt a little bit of panic gripping his chest. However, in true Marauder style, he merely smirked,

"You're a lot tougher than Sirius thinks you are if you can handle making stupid jokes like that Reggie." he said calmly.

Out of the corner of his eye, he heard Lucius Malfoy mutter something under his breathe and turned to see a long cord shooting towards him from the tip of the nearly white haired Slytherins wand. To his surprise, the cord wrapped itself tightly around his wrist. Then Malfoy had given a hard yank, causing James to stumble forward, none too gracefully, towards the Slytherins. The circle shuffled around and soon James was completely surrounded by Slytherins, all of them wearing the same evil sneer.

Someone to his right uttered the charm of "Muffliato" making it impossible for anyone outside the room to hear what was going on inside and suddenly James had the sinking feeling that, if help was coming, it wouldn't make it on time.

Then, he felt a sudden rush of determination, if he was going to die, he was going to go out calmly, defiantly, and outright laughing in death's face.

"Do what you want to me but the Marauders are just as dangerous without me as they are with me and they will make you regret this someday." He said defiantly.

Lucius Malfoy merely let out a short laugh before uttering the spell that James had always somewhat hoped he would never have used on him again, the cruciatus curse.

Pain shot through his entire body as if he was being stabbed with millions of tiny knives. The pain was unimaginable and despite his earlier promise to himself, James could hear himself screaming in agony in response. It seemed to go on for an eternity before the pain was gone, just as suddenly as it had come. It took James a few moments to regain his bearings and realize that in the midst of the agony, he'd collapsed to the floor, writhing in pain.

"Painful isn't it?" Malfoy asked maliciously as James tried to push himself into a sitting position.

"How would you know, it's probably never been used on you, Mr. I'm - a - pure-blood - and - I'm - bloody - proud - of - it." James said angrily, putting all of the force that he could into the words.

"Oh no, my only enemies are way too law abiding and goody two shoes to ever use it." Malfoy said with an annoying air of superiority.

James felt a smirk coming to his face at the description of himself and his friends as law abiding and goody two shoes since he, Sirius, and Peter were all illegal animagus and all four of the Marauders held records for breaking school rules.

Malfoy's sneer faded as James' smirk gained power,

"What are you smirking about, you filthy blood traitor?" he said, getting slightly angry.

"Well, you just referred to Sirius Black and myself as goody two shoe, he's going to be pretty annoyed about that." James said with a slight shrug that he instantly regretted as it sent pain through his whole body causing him to grimace.

Whatever ground he had gained in this confrontation with his momentary confidence was lost with that grimace and from behind him he heard Bellatrix Black uttering the incantation that promised pain.

** in the dormitory a few hours later**

Sirius Black sat strait up in bed having just woken up from a very vivid dream about his best friend being tortured by a bunch of Slytherins. He glanced over at James' bed hoping to be reassured by seeing James asleep under his covers only to discover that James had yet to return from his study session with Lily.

A few minutes later, unable to shake the dread that he was feeling, Sirius pulled the Marauder's Map from it's hiding place.

"Stop panicking man, he's just down in the dungeons, that's only main Slytherin territory, he should be just fine." he muttered as he waited for the dungeons to come into focus on the map. However, he was in for a nasty shock when they did. He found James exactly where he'd expected to find him, unfortunately, James was also surrounded by a dozen of the worst Slytherins.

"Remus!" he called as he ran across the room to his other friend's bed, "Come on Remus, wake up. James is in trouble."

Once he heard that their friend was in trouble, Remus woke up pretty quickly and soon both boys had thrown on shoes and sweatshirts and had set off down the stairs at a run with the invisibility cloak in Sirius' jacket pocket.

"And you say he's surrounded by Slytherins?" Remus said through heavy breathing as they sprinted down the corridors towards the dungeons.

"Yes, they're all in this circle around him and it's the Slytherins that we either know are Death Eaters or we're at the least pretty darn sure." Sirius responded, though he wasn't breathing as hard because of Quidditch training.

"You know, I'm starting to wonder if Lily even sent James that note." Remus said. They reached the dungeons but as they came around a corner, they ran headlong into Lily Evans herself.

"What were you doing down here?" Sirius asked suspiciously.

"Talking with Professor Slughorn." Lily said, "Why on earth are you two running down here? It's almost ten o'clock at night."

"Lily, did you or did you not send James a note asking him to tutor you in Transfiguration?" Remus asked staring strait at the red head.

"No," Lily said, "Why on earth would I -"

Remus cut her off suddenly, Sirius had begun running again when she'd said no.

"You need to go get Professor McGonagall and bring her to the spare classroom fast." he said urgently before sprinting off after Sirius.

Lily stood confused for a moment before deciding that she trusted Remus and going to get Professor McGonagall.

It didn't take Sirius long to reach the spare classroom but due to the horror that had filled him when Lily had said that she hadn't asked James to meet her it felt like forever. What awaited him there only made it worse.

Sirius flung open the door to the classroom to find his best friend laying sprawled on the floor in the middle of the room, his glasses askew and while there were no obviously signs of injury, James didn't appear to be breathing.

Sirius was still standing there in shock a few moments later when Remus collided with him. Awoken by the shock, Sirius quickly crossed to James' side to check for a pulse and his following howl of grief confirmed Remus' worst fear.

James Potter was dead.

For a few minutes Remus had stared in shock at the body of one of his best friends, watching quietly as Sirius had lain over James' body, his own body shaking as he silently sobbed.

'How could this happen? Weren't we supposed to be safe at Hogwarts? Of course, it was a bunch of students that apparently did this. How could anyone do this to a thirteen year old?'

His shock lasted until he heard the rather firm voice of Professor McGonagall,

"Mr. Lupin, what's the meaning of this? I expect -"

She cut off suddenly having moved him aside to see what had happened that so urgently needed her attention and saw James body with Sirius still kneeling beside it in tears.

"Oh my." she said quietly and Remus heard Lily, who had apparently followed her back down to see what was so important, gasp.

Professor McGonagall quickly muttered an incantation and her patronus immediately shot out running down the hallways towards the stairs. Having done this, she joined Remus in staring, shocked, at James' corpse.

A few minutes later, Dumbledore arrived. Quickly taking in the scene, he turned to McGonagall,

"Minerva, if you would fetch Poppy for us."

Remus watched her nod curtly before she turned and swept off towards the stairs. With a sigh Dumbledore turned back to look at Remus and Lily.

"This should not be happening, the balance cannot be affected this way." he said, at least that's what Remus thought he said but whatever had been said, was said so quietly that he wasn't sure.

Suddenly Dumbledore looked at them, his face filled with authority,

"I have a task for the three of you, Mr. Black come over here." he said calmly.

Remus turned and watched as Sirius reluctantly drug himself away from James' body, a broken look on his face.

"Good," Dumbledore said, leading them around the corner before pulling something out of his pocket and handing it to Remus, "This is a time turner, it will take you back in time. If you turn it once you will go back one hour. I believe that will be sufficient. Whatever you do, you must prevent this from happening. He cannot die tonight. Do you understand?"

Remus nodded, shocked and yet happy that Dumbledore was asking them to go back in time and prevent James' death. Then he nodded more firmly and looking at Sirius, he saw the determination kindling in his friend's eyes. Turning to Lily, he saw a somewhat similar look in her eyes. Slipping the chain around all three of their necks and turned the spindle once.

Moments later they found themselves standing in the same spot that they had been except Dumbledore had vanished.

"Just how many Slytherins did you say were in there?" Remus said looking at Sirius.

"Twelve." Sirius responded, "My brother and cousin are in there if that gives you an idea what kind of people are attacking James."

"Alright, we probably don't have a lot of time since we don't know how long he'd been dead when we got there. Do you have the cloak?" Remus said.

"I grabbed it when we left the dorm, how stupid do you think I am?" Sirius said.

"Alright, let me go see exactly what we're dealing with and I'll be back." Remus said. Then he performed a disillusionment charm on himself and slipped around the corner.

Looking at the door, he quickly muttered a spell to render it transparent before analyzing the scene. To his surprise, he saw James lying on the floor, writhing in agony, clearly under the affects of the cruciatus curse. Turning away he hurried back to where the others were waiting.

"We have to go now, they're using the cruciatus curse on him and I don't think he'll last much longer." he said urgently as soon as he saw them. Without hesitation, they all piled under the invisibility cloak and returned to the door. Remus cast a spell to blast open the door and the three students immediately began firing stunning spells. The Slytherins quickly responded and soon there were stunning spells flying every which way.

Lily, Remus, and Sirius quickly moved into the classroom. A few minutes into the confrontation, Sirius saw Bellatrix pointing her wand at James and to his horror he heard,

"Avad-" as she began to utter the worst spell imaginable.

"STUPEFY!" he cried and to his surprise, he discovered that Remus and Lily had also stunned her at the same time as him. The remaining Slytherins didn't last much longer after that and soon silence settled over the room. Casting a disillusionment charm over himself, Sirius slipped out from under the cloak and over to James' side. James whimpered slightly as Sirius gently brushed his friend's hair out of his eyes before whispering,

"It's going to be okay, your safe now."

Remus and Lily stood under the cloak watching this display of emotion. Remus smiled knowing that Sirius considered James as more of a brother than he'd ever considered Regulus and Lily was surprised as this was not something expected of the Sirius Black that she thought she knew.

Soon there was a thundering of footsteps outside the room and as Sirius returned and slipped back under the cloak, another Sirius Black came bursting into the room, stopping dead as he took in the scene before him. Moments later he was joined by Remus who collided with his friend causing him to move to James' side where he checked his friend's pulse before adding his own words of comfort.

"Is he - " the recently arrived Remus asked, trailing off towards the end of the sentence.

"He's alive." Sirius confirmed, "but he's barely breathing. I think they used the cruciatus curse on him. I hope Professor McGonagall gets here soon."

As if on cue, Professor McGonagall chose that moment to make her appearance.

"Mr. Lupin, what's the meaning of this? I expect -"

She stopped suddenly upon seeing the unconscious students that littered the floor of the classroom.

"What exactly happened here?" she asked a moment later.

"We just got here but we think these Slytherins ambushed him and used the cruciatus curse on him." Remus said quietly.

Lily, who up until then had been standing quietly behind Professor McGonagall, let out a gasp when he said this.

Professor McGonagall looked rather upset at this information, but she turned and sent out two patronuses, one to Dumbledore and one to Madam Pomphrey.

"Will he be alright?" Lily asked quietly.

"I'm sure Madam Pomphrey will patch him right up." Professor McGonagall said calmly. A few minutes later Madam Pomphrey swept in with Dumbledore close behind her.

She hurried strait over to James muttered something about cruciatus curses under her breathe and swiftly performed a few spells on him. Conjuring up a stretcher for him she turned to leave.

"I trust you can handle the rest of these students." she said looking at the two professors.

"Of course. They do not appear to be in any immediate danger." Dumbledore said looking at James sadly as the boy shifted slightly and let out another whimper.

She nodded curtly before pointing her wand at the stretcher and, pushing it ahead of her, left the room.

"Minerva, if you will start dealing with the Slytherins, I will speak to these students and then send them off to bed. She nodded curtly in much the same way that Madam Pomphrey had and he motioned for them to follow him. Both sets did so.  
The group under the invisibility cloak stood at a distance as he assigned the task they had just completed to the others and as soon as they had disappeared, they threw off the cloak and hurried over to him.

"Thank you for trusting me. " he said with a smile when he saw them, "You did well. Now, I must insist that you go to bed now, but if you wish to use that cloak to slip in and see young Mr. Potter on your way I will not object. Good night."

"Good night sir." They all said before hurrying along the halls and out of the dungeons. When they arrived at the door to the infirmary, they slipped under the cloak before quietly opening the door and sneaking in.

They saw James lying in a bed at the far end. Madam Pomphrey was helping him drink a potion though he was having a hard time of it because he was barely conscious. Once the task had been completed, she gently tucked the covers around him and turned to go back to bed herself.

Once she'd gone through the door at the end of the Wing, they hurried over to his bed and stared down at him.

"Muffliato." Remus quickly said before tucking his wand back into his robes.

"He looks so small." Lily said quietly.

"I can't bear to see you like this," Sirius said quietly, "especially seeing as people from my family played a part in it. Sorry James."

He then cast a disillusionment charm over himself and hurried out of the Wing.

"What happened to him?" James asked weakly, looking very confused and clearly in a lot of pain.

"He took this really hard." Remus said quietly, "Especially when you were dead, which is a long story that we'll save for when your really awake."

James nodded weakly and soon drifted into complete unconsciousness as the potion began to take full affect and heal the damage done to his body by the curse. They then fell into a strangely awkward silence at which point Lily and Remus decided they should probably go before Madam Pomphrey came back and after bidding James a good night they slipped out of the Hospital Wing and headed back up to Gryffindor Tower.

James remained unconscious for most of the next two weeks while the potion, which Madam Pomphrey continued to give him twice a day, did it's job. Even once he woke up, he spent a good deal of his time sleeping for the next week. Through it all Lindsey, Remus and Sirius spent most of their time in the Hospital Wing. They only left to go to class. When Madam Pomphrey kicked them out for the night they usually snuck back in for another hour before returning to their dormitory.

Lindsey had been horrified when she'd finally forced the full story out of Remus and Sirius and discovered that her brother had actually died in all technicality. She'd hexed Slytherins at sporadic intervals for the next week much to the chagrin of Lily Evans.

Lily Evans also checked in several times though she only stayed around ten minutes and claimed she was merely checking to see if he was alright. Once he woke up, she stopped coming, claiming that she didn't want to inflate his ego.

The Slytherins who attacked him were given detention for the rest of the year and put on serious warning, if they so much as put a toe out of line they would be expelled and if they were caught doing anything anywhere near this serious again, it would mean time in Azkaban.

Needless to say, Lord Voldemort was not pleased. He begrudgingly acknowledged that there was little chance that he would be able to destroy James Potter as a threat as long as the boy remained at Hogwarts. After his graduation though, he made plenty of attempts during James' time with the Order of the Phoenix but when he finally managed to kill James, nearly eight years after his first attempt, it was too late. The Boy Who Lived had been born and Lord Moldy-shorts' fate had been sealed.

This has been another production brought to you by "Voldemort, puhleaaz, He should have named himself Felix, harder to make fun of and much more intimidating. Stupid Moldy-shorts!"

THE END


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